Took the family to Mandalay Bay for Thanksgiving.
We enjoyed a great suite at a pretty rediculous
price, thanks to Fatwallet. The kids especially
enjoyed Lance Burton, the food,and even in
the winter, one of their pools.
Between/after family stuff, I played 4 sessions of $1-2NL at the MB poker room. Very friendly staff overall. No problem with chopping blinds, and no rake on non-flop hands, even if their
were mulitple raises pre-flop. The beting circle? That was an issue, as it ranged from
being completely ignored (vast majority of the
time), to srictly enforced, in no pattern that
I could detect.
Competition was quite variable, with a range of
mostly tourists like myself, to 50/50 obvious
locals--and they mostly played pretty rock-like.
Drinks were overall quick, good selection, no
complaints.
Minor hassle: each dealer setting up shop wanted
to explain about the bonus hands, even when told
by the table, everyone already was aware of the
rules.
Major hassle: the rake/jackpot was often levied higher than stated on the tables. Or let me put it another way, the dealers had no problems "rounding up" in the favor of the house.
My total time of about 10 hours was not too eventful. I had my aces cracked by KJ, but avoided loosing major $ after the turn.
My one very profitable session--about $525 to the good, came by my cracking AA and KK from the
bb/sb respectively, in un-raised pots with 36s, and 79o, respectively. I got an earful from the KK holder,which was funny. He truly could not have played the kk worse.
The other 3 sessions, I "crushed" the table for
$12,14, and 22 in profit.
I saw no bonus hands, no horrendous beats, and overall, everyone had a good time. Lots of countries represented--Sweden, Germany, France,
a few South American locations, and my favorite, a woman from Denmark. We were able to discuss the
Kessler/Ward fight in some detail, as I was lucky
enough to work that fight was a ringside doc.
Overall, I would happily play there again.

gary